Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is commonly used in many industrial and medical processes such as water treatment plants and disinfection. It is also a by-product of oxidative metabolisms. Detection and determination of small concentrations of hydrogen peroxide remains a major challenge in many fields where it plays a main role in a variety of damage mechanisms. For example, H2O2 induces cellular damage in human cells and its presence can be used to diagnose illnesses such as asthma. Hydrogen peroxide is also believed to be responsible for chemical degradation of polymer membranes in Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells (PEM-Fuel cells). Conventional techniques to detect H2O2 include titrimetric, colorimetric, and gasometric methods, which, in general, require complex equipment and time consuming sample preparation, or have poor selectivity and limits of detection. Electrochemical and spectroscopic techniques, on the other hand, are able to determine small concentrations of H2O2 and have good selectivity, with spectroscopic techniques being preferred for many biochemical and industrial applications because of their immunity to electromagnetic interference. Spectroscopic detection includes chemiluminescent, fluorescent, and absorptive techniques.
While particular sensors for hydrogen peroxide detection based on the redox reaction of the Prussian blue (PB)-Prussian white (PW) system have been utilized in the field, there are issues associated with such sensors that negatively impact the overall performance of such sensors when applied in various applications.